Breakfast the following morning was silent and a bit icy for Jethro. The girls had given Noemi a heads up about the icy conditions between their parents before they came in for breakfast. There was a ring at the doorbell and Emiliana answered it.
“Who is it? Jethro called from the igloo kitchen.
“Uncle G.”
“Callen what the hell are you doing out here?” Jethro asked.
Like everyone else in the room Callen sensed the icy atmosphere in the room.
“I had some comp time that Hetty was getting on my case about. Figured I’d fly out here for some bolo. Thought it be nice to see your beautiful wife in person when she’s not being my boss and seeing my four favorite girls.” Callen answered.
“Good, you can occupy Leroy while I change for work.” Jenny said as she got up from the island counter.
“Damn Jethro, what did you do to piss her off?”
“Ask her.” Jethro said as he went to the basement.
“Sounds like the typical Jethro response.”
“Dad’s not speaking to Mom and Eli because Eli interrupted them via MTAC feed the other day when they were mid-coitus. Dad went mental and Mom had to do damage control. Then Dad took it a step further and started arguing with Mom, telling her that she should have sided with him instead of with Eli after everything Eli has done to Ziva.” Madison said once her dad was completely downstairs.
“Ouch coitus interruptus.”
“I hate to say this but Dad is wrong. He acted like a child cause he didn’t get laid.” Arabella stated.
“Arabella Jacqueline.” Callen reprimanded.
“G, we’re seventeen not seven anymore. Besides after all these years you should know that Aria is the blunt one.” Emiliana said.
“Anyway, Mom is not speaking to Dad because she says he’s acting like a child.” Delilah spoke.
“And we’re all avoiding both of them.” Madison stated.
“All of us as in?”
“Us, Noemi, Ducky, Abs, Palmer, Ziva, McGee, Tony. Basically everyone at NCIS and your office. Franks, Leyla, Amira and Grandpa too.”
“Wow; didn’t think Franks and his family would be feeling the effects of a Jen and Jethro fight down in Baja.”
“More like it reached them over in Colorado. Leyla wanted to take Amira skiing before they went back home to New Mexico.”
“Thought they were living in Baja?”
“They were until Bell and his men burnt the house to the ground six years back.” Jethro answered his friend and colleague.
“Aren’t you girls supposed to be in school or something?” Callen inquired.
“VEA in-service, we have a four day weekend.” Arabella said.
“So you have to deal with this all weekend then?
“Probably unless they have to stay at the office for some reason, which I think at this point Dad would rather stay there instead of sleeping on the couch.” Emiliana said.
“We’re just ready for this to thaw out.” Delilah said.
“I bet everyone is. I know Hetty wasn’t too thrilled that she has a MTAC conference with Jen this morning”
“Yeah Mom does have a temper on her.” Madison said.
“Believe me; I know she has a temper. Like your dad, I have experienced it firsthand.”
At that point Jenny rejoined the collective in the kitchen.
“So what do you girls have planned for your day off?” Jenny asked her daughters as she waited for her protection detail to arrive.
Unlike all the other days since Jenny and Jethro had revealed their real lives, today was not one of the days that Jenny was going into work with Jethro. Today she was going in as the Director and keeping her personal life as far from her professional life as humanly possible whether Jethro liked it or not.
“We are going to visit Kelly.”
“When you do, tell Shannon that her husband is being a childish ass.” Jenny told her daughters.
“Okay, slow down you guys. You all are acting like Shannon and Kelly are alive when they’ve been dead for…..”
“For twenty-four years.” Jethro said when he came into the room from the basement.
“Can’t believe it’s that long, Senior Gibbs.” Noemi said.
“Summer of ’92, was when Shannon and Kels died; Noemi.” Delilah said.
“Dad has said all along that Kelly and I could have been twins if the whole kid thing between him and Shannon, even between him and Mom turned out differently.” Madison said.
With that comment from her daughter, Jenny was reminded of how Jethro was cheated out of having more kids with both her and Shannon. Sometimes Jenny had regretted her choice to tie her tubes after the girls, this was one of those moments. After Abby had learned that Kelly wasn’t Jethro’s only child she instantly went into warp mode. Abby used Photoshop to put together a mini poster for Jethro. It had a picture of Kelly on it as well as pictures of Delilah, Arabella, Madison and Emiliana. Abby had position the picture to have it look like Kelly was watching over her little half – sisters from Heaven.
At the bottom the poster it read two things in slanted handwriting.
Once sisters always sisters.
Kelly, Delilah, Emiliana, Arabella and Madison; Jethro’s girls.
Things were still icy between Jenny and Jethro by the time they got to the office. Tony and McGee were content with letting things play out between Mommy and Daddy, to them it would eventually smooth out. Ziva, Jaylyn and Abby on the other hand wanted to help out despite how stubborn they knew both Jenny and Jethro are.
Even at the office as it had been things weren’t normal due to the spousal dispute. Callen had stopped by the agency mid-afternoon when the girls had gone to visit their sister. Callen had learned when he first visited the agency just after Jenny had taken the Director’s chair back in 2005 that Jenny would prop herself against the railing watching over her husband and the kids on a daily basis.
Today that wasn’t the case. Jenny and Jethro avoided each unless it was absolutely necessary for them to talk to each other and that was only when it was work related. So today Jenny wasn’t at her perch and when she was it was when Jethro had gone out for coffee which allowed her to protectively watch over the work Gibblets, her sister and Callen without being glared at by Jethro.
Meanwhile Madison and her sisters had reached the cemetery where Kelly and Shannon were interred. Jethro had told the girls to dress nice before they had left for the cemetery, but as expected they didn’t listen. It was a warm spring-ish/ summer day so they each were sporting some variation of spring/summer attire.
“Hey Kels, we thought we’d drop by.” Delilah said.
“Hey sis.” Arabella, Emiliana and Madison chimed in.
“Hi Shannon.” The girls said to Shannon’s headstone.
“Mom wanted us to tell you that Dad is your problem at the moment.” Arabella said.
“Anyway, we just wanted to come down here and see you. Tell you what senior year of high school is like and how insanely overprotective Dad has been.” Emiliana said.
“It’s clear he misses both of you. Still misses you both.” Delilah said.
“Yeah sometimes Mom and us fill that void in his heart from when you guys died, but as of late; especially with Mom and Dad fighting it seems like the five of us are merely replacements for you guys.”
“But who knows. We’re just hoping this all blows over soon.”
The girls were at the cemetery for some time. At the agency Jenny left her perch when Jethro came back. Jenny had snapped back to reality from her daydream of Paris which had turned into her remembering every little moment between her and Jethro over the years.
Jenny was tired of fighting and she knew that the others were wanting it all to be over, but then again she wasn’t going to be the first to cave. She knew that she was the one that was right. In her mind it was Jethro who needed to apologize even if he saw apologizing as a sign of weakness. In this situation in her mind was that rule six was null and void. When it came to family apologizing wasn’t a weakness.
The work day continued on. The tension continued on until Jaylyn, Ziva, Abby and the girls took matters into their own hands. Ziva left the office under the pretense of following a lead when in all actuality she went over to Jenny and Jethro’s house to pick up the girls. When they were five minutes away from the Navy Yard, Ziva told the girls that they were meeting their aunt and Abby in Abby’s lab to discuss how to go about mending things between Jenny and Jethro before the end of the work day. Ziva before she had left had coarse Tony into giving Callen a tour of the agency with the exception of Abby’s lab. She didn’t want to run the risk of being busted.
“Okay so the only way to go about this is to divide and conquer.” Ziva said.
“Exactly, we need to break this cycle. It’s not only affecting them, its affecting all of us.” Abby said.
“Its not going to be, easy at all; they are too stubborn to cop to anything.” Jaylyn said.
“Okay so what’s the game plan?” Madison asked.
“I think that Aunt Jay and Ziva should take on Mom since they’re the only ones besides Dad that knows her well enough to get her to realize the side effects of this argument.” Emiliana said.
“And since Abby is Dad’s favorite here besides the four of us; we’ll take on Dad with Abby.” Delilah said.
“Or we could just trick Mom and Dad into the conference room, call them out on all this crap and lock them in the conference room until they sort things out.” Arabella said.
“Sounds good to me.”
So with that the group cornered the squabbling duo and locked them in the conference room. Once the group had locked the door they returned to squad-room with the Tony, McGee, Callen and Ducky. There was a lot of screaming that could be heard by the squad room inhabitants. Abby didn’t like the sound of hearing Mommy and Daddy yelling at each other like they were, so she buried herself into Ducky’s comforting embrace. At one point there was absolute silence emanating from the conference room which only made Tony believe that his bosses were fooling around.
Moments later Jenny and Jethro came out of the conference room and stood in direct eye line of the audience below them in the squad-room. Jenny and Jethro was completely serious and not even holding hands like the usually did when they had made up. Once they knew everyone was watching them, Jethro pulled Jenny into his arms; leaned her back a bit on his one arm and kissed her completely re-enacting the famous Times Square V-J Day kiss from 1945.
“Way to go Gibbs!!!”Tony shouted.
Callen, Ducky and McGee nodded in approval.
Abby, Ziva, Jaylyn and the girls cheered.
“Get a room!!!!” the girls shouted.
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